Auditing the Auditors - How Our New Standards will Affect You

Our Technical Department plays an important role in ensuring we always meet the latest auditing requirements across a diverse range of certifications.

At the recent NCSI conference, NCSI Technical Manager Heather Craig revealed some changes within JAS-ANZ protocols that will have an impact on the way we conduct audits for our clients.

The international standards for auditing of management systems, ISO 17021, will be updated this year with more prescriptive requirements for the way we investigate any issues we raise.

This means you may find we’re asking more questions. We need to ensure you have investigated the root causes of those issues. Importantly, this helps us all identify where the true problem lies – and how it can best be resolved.

“These external requirements apply to all accredited standards,” Heather explains. “It makes sense to apply it across the board. We also need to meet rigorous standards in the way we conduct our business as an accredited certification body – we are audited three times a year ourselves.”

NCSI is currently running training sessions within the organisation to ensure we meet requirements in 2012.

“We need to be demonstrating it by the next round of audits,” says Heather. “Some clients may notice their auditor is asking for specific information, especially at the exit meeting. We need to fully understand how issues have been investigated before issues are closed out.”